A machine of the mentioned type is known from German OS No. 31 42 843 (which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4 545 708). This type of construction makes it possible to assign during finishing, rolling, honing, etc., a specific center distance and a specific pivot or plunge angle for each point on a flank contour of the gear to be machined. The specific center distance and specific pivot or plunge angle can be adjusted as needed. It is possible in this manner to produce almost any desired shape of flank contour, namely, independent of the shape of the tool-tooth flanks. Machining can be done on the known machine both according to the parallel method and also according to the diagonal and underpass or according to the plunge method. It has been considered to be disadvantageous at times the movement of the feed carriage and the pivoting movement of hte rockable slide p member can be controlled independently from one another, however, in dependency of the respective position of the feed slide. This limits the possibilities influencing a correction. Also in practice it happens again and again that a transition from one method to another method during the machining task would be advantageous, for example, in order to achieve a desired flank shape or flank correction or in order to "wipe out" machining marks or for other reasons. Such a transition is only conditionally possible in the iknown machine. Hampering this transition are in particular the necessary turning of the feed slide (during the transition, for example from the parallel to the diagonal method) and the device described in German OS No. 34 10 686 (which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4 575 289), with which holds the feed slide in its respectively adjusted angular position relative to he machine frame or to the feed carriage.
Therefore, the basic purpose of the invention is to further develop the machine such that its range of application can be increased. and this is accomplished by providing a cross stroke. In particular, any desired transition from one method to another is now possible without requiring complicated control mechanism to do so. Also the possibility of influencing a correction is to exist.
Due to the fact that the tool can, in the inventive machine, be moved by means of the feed slide and a cross slide in two perpendicularly related directions relative to the workpiece, each point, which can be reached by the tool within the operating range, can be defined in a simple and reliable manner as a point of intersection of two coordinates. The up to now necessary conversion of angle measurements is no longer needed since the feed slide is no longer rotatably arranged on the feed carriage, but can be moved only in one direction. Thus, all movements have become freely programmable, which substantially simplifies both the control for achievement of a movement toward all necessary points on the respectively desired flank contour and also the corresponding programming. Further, a transition from one method to another one during machining is possible.
Due to the arrangement of the cross slide on the feed slide, it is possible, as has already been mentioned, to reach each point within the operating range of the machine. Thus, it is no longer necessary, as had been in the past, to chuck the workpiece exactly centrally with respect to the axis of rotation of the tool head, thus substantially eliminating the complicated movement of the tailstock on the machine bed and also an exact adjustment of the clamping mechanisms. The tool can now be moved to the workpiece center and all preprogrammed machining movements start out from this point.
Workpieces with several tooth systems thus can be machined in one setting or at least in fewer settings than has been possible up to now, since each tool can be guided to the tooth system for machining purposes, which is not possible in the case of the machine according to the state of the art.
The arrangement of the motor for the rotary drive of the tool laterally on the tool head, which arrangement is known from the aforementioned German OS No. 31 42 843, can, due to the uneven weight distribution, result in shortcomings in the area of the rockable slide member or its adjusting drive. An arrangement of the motor in front of or behind the tool and with an axis parallel to the axis of the tool results in an almost ideal weight distribution. This arrangement can at times create problems because of an insufficient free movement of the workpiece: if machining is done in the plunge method, the motor does not interfere; however, it can be in the way, when--which must be possible without limitations for the desired increased range of application--machining is done according to the diagonal or according to the underpass method. Also the loading and unloading of the workpiece is possibly considerably influenced by a motor positioned in front of or behind the tool. A center-distance increase between tool and workpiece, only in order to permit the loading, is time consuming and is therefore supposed to be avoided.